Dylan played the Opera House Theater in Blackpool, England last night, November 24, 2013 — the third of three shows. You can listen below to the entire concert.
Tomorrow, November 26, 2013, an album of 1970 recordings, Has Anybody Seen Our Freedoms?, by the brilliant raga/psychedelic/folk acoustic guitarist Peter Walker will be released by Delmore Recording Society.
According to a press release about the new album, Larry Coryell described Walker as, “’One of the most original practitioners of contemporary music’ and [Walker was] proclaimed by the Beatles’ press agent Derek Taylor as ‘Perhaps the greatest guitarist in the world.’ His music [was] celebrated by the late Jack Rose, James Blackshaw, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Thurston Moore, and Greg Davis; all contributed original compositions to the 2006 tribute album, A Raga For Peter Walker.”
Artist Shepard Fairey and photographer Dennis Morris are putting on an exhibit/event called “SID: Superman Is Dead” that seems to be celebrating Sid Vicious.
They’ll have posters, paintings, prints and paintings of Sid for sale. And there will be performances of “1977 Era Classics by former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, Billy Idol, Blondie drummer Clem Burke & Bow Wow Wow guitarist Leigh Gorman. The exhibit is being held at Subliminal Projects in Los Angeles. The opening night reception is on Friday December 13, 2013.
Here’s an excerpt from the press release:
Sid has been immortalized in countless posthumous recordings, films, T-shirts, action figures etc. SID: Superman Is Dead is possibly the ultimate of these tributes, its centerpiece being a recreation of a hotel room trashed by Sid in a fit of intoxication, rage and depression during the infamous S.P.O.T.S. (Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly) tour of 1977, during which the Pistols were forced to play every date under pseudonyms to avoid cancellation.
I was around during the life and and death of the Sex Pistols. I saw the group at Winterland when they played their final show before breaking up. I don’t understand why Fairey and Morris are doing this show.
Sid Vicious was a no talent. He was an addict and a creep.
There were amazing talents during the punk years: Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, David Byrne, John Lydon, Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Poly Styrene and many more.
But Sid Vicious. Give me a fucking break.
Here’s what Shepard Fairey says about Sid Vicious:
The Sex Pistols changed my life when I discovered them as a teenager. Their music alone made my arm hairs stand up, but their image and attitude were just as important and powerful. The member of the Sex Pistols who I was drawn to and most epitomized the punk image for me was Sid Vicious, with his spiked hair, leather jacket, lock necklace, and reckless behavior. At 14 I was mesmerized by Sid and I made my first home-made tee shirt of him snarling his lip defiantly. As I was rebelling, looking for any way to irritate my parents, and before I knew better, Sid was my Superman. Sid self-destructed young, and with punk’s slogans like “No Future” and “live fast, die young” , Sid was everything the Superman, anti-hero, or cliche, of a nihilistic movement called for. Sid didn’t really do much to shape punk music… he only actually played on two songs on Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols. However, Sid’s surly vocals kick ass on C’mon Everybody, Somethin’ Else, and My Way. Sid remains one of punk’s most enduring icons even if he is a classic example of style over substance. I was a sucker for Sid’s image as a teenager, and I still am, even though I see him as less “cool” and more tragic and cautionary these days. I have made many images of Sid over the years, and I thought I had retired him as a subject, until Dennis Morris, the photographer of the most intimate and iconic shots of Sid approached me about a collaboration. Dennis’s archive provided an amazing treasure trove of Sid images to work from in creating the paintings and prints in the “Superman Is Dead” show. I’m so glad I got to do Dennis’s Sid images “My Way”! I can now retire Sid as a subject. I’ve worked with the best, I can skip the rest.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy released a new recording of his “Black Captain” on Saturday, dedicated to Greenpeace captain Peter Willcox, who was recently released from a jail in St. Petersburg after spending over two months in Russian custody, the Huffington Post reports.
New Springsteen album, High Hopes, will be released January 14, 2014.
The album mixes covers, originals and new versions of older songs. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello appears on eight tracks. It was produced by Brendan O’Brien and Ron Aniello.
Here’s more info off Springsteen’s website:
High Hopes finds Bruce in a number of different musical settings, and includes the members of the E Street Band as well as guitarist Tom Morello and many additional players. Recorded in New Jersey, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Australia and New York City, High Hopes marks Bruce’s 18th studio album and includes his own liner notes that detail the album’s evolution, viewable now at brucespringsteen.net.
Morello joined Bruce and the E Street Band on tour in Australia in March 2013 (sitting in for Steve Van Zandt), and became, as Bruce says, “my muse, pushing the rest of this project to another level.” Besides his guitar playing on the album, Morello also duets with Bruce on ”The Ghost of Tom Joad.” Clarence Clemons, who passed away in 2011, and Danny Federici, who passed away in 2008, also appear on several songs of what Springsteen calls “some of our best unreleased material from the past decade.”
Here’s the “High Hopes” video:
High Hopes tracklisting:
1. High Hopes (Tim Scott McConnell) – featuring Tom Morello
2. Harry’s Place * – featuring Tom Morello
3. American Skin (41 Shots) – featuring Tom Morello
4. Just Like Fire Would (Chris J. Bailey) – featuring Tom Morello
5. Down In The Hole *
6. Heaven’s Wall ** – featuring Tom Morello
7. Frankie Fell In Love
8. This Is Your Sword
9. Hunter Of Invisible Game * – featuring Tom Morello
10. The Ghost of Tom Joad – duet with Tom Morello
11. The Wall
12. Dream Baby Dream (Martin Rev and Alan Vega) – featuring Tom Morello
All songs written by Bruce Springsteen except as noted
Album produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen
*Produced by Brendan O’Brien
**Produced by Brendan O’Brien, co-produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen
Here are Springsteen’s liner notes:
I was working on a record of some of our best unreleased material from the past decade when Tom Morello (sitting in for Steve during the Australian leg of our tour) suggested we ought to add “High Hopes” to our live set. I had cut “High Hopes”, a song by Tim Scott McConnell of the LA based Havalinas, in the 90′s. We worked it up in our Aussie rehearsals and Tom then proceeded to burn the house down with it. We re-cut it mid tour at Studios 301 in Sydney along with “Just Like Fire Would”, a song from one of my favorite early Australian punk bands, The Saints (check out “I’m Stranded”). Tom and his guitar became my muse, pushing the rest of this project to another level. Thanks for the inspiration Tom.
Some of these songs, “American Skin” and “Ghost of Tom Joad”, you’ll be familiar with from our live versions. I felt they were among the best of my writing and deserved a proper studio recording. “The Wall” is something I’d played on stage a few times and remains very close to my heart. The title and idea were Joe Grushecky’s, then the song appeared after Patti and I made a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. It was inspired by my memories of Walter Cichon. Walter was one of the great early Jersey Shore rockers, who along with his brother Ray (one of my early guitar mentors) led the “Motifs”. The Motifs were a local rock band who were always a head above everybody else. Raw, sexy and rebellious, they were the heroes you aspired to be. But these were heroes you could touch, speak to, and go to with your musical inquiries. Cool, but always accessible, they were an inspiration to me, and many young working musicians in 1960′s central New Jersey. Though my character in “The Wall” is a Marine, Walter was actually in the Army, A Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry. He was the first person I ever stood in the presence of who was filled with the mystique of the true rock star. Walter went missing in action in Vietnam in March 1968. He still performs somewhat regularly in my mind, the way he stood, dressed, held the tambourine, the casual cool, the freeness. The man who by his attitude, his walk said “you can defy all this, all of what’s here, all of what you’ve been taught, taught to fear, to love and you’ll still be alright.” His was a terrible loss to us, his loved ones and the local music scene. I still miss him.
This is music I always felt needed to be released. From the gangsters of “Harry’s Place”, the ill-prepared roomies on “Frankie Fell In Love” (shades of Steve and I bumming together in our Asbury Park apartment) the travelers in the wasteland of “Hunter Of Invisible Game,” to the soldier and his visiting friend in “The Wall”, I felt they all deserved a home and a hearing. Hope you enjoy it.
This performance was broadcast on VH1 a few days ago but if you missed it, it’s cool. There’s a great raw DIY quality to the whole thing. Check out the guitar playing.
